Meth pushes its way into New England

Tuesday

Jul 1, 2014 at 6:00 AM

Methamphetamine use has reached epidemic levels in the Midwest, and it's definitely increasing in New England. A raid at a home in Falmouth in June found the first documented meth lab on Cape Cod. (Last of three parts.)

Christian Schiavone The Patriot Ledger @CSchiavo_Ledger

Even before it was raided June 12 and discovered to be the first documented methamphetamine lab on Cape Cod, the house at 87 Chestnut St. looked unkempt.

The homes on the street — within walking distance to Teaticket Elementary School and the ocean — are mostly small and tidy.

THE SERIES

SATURDAY: Should drug dealers be prosecuted for manslaughter? Easier said than done.

MONDAY: Drug deaths up 12 percent in local communities

TUESDAY: Meth lab busted on Cape hints new danger has arrived.

In contrast, the ranch rented by Edward Rooney, 33, who reportedly lived with his mother and 10-year-old son, had a rusty antenna on the roof, old gray shingles and an untended yard.

“I didn’t even know that a kid lived there,” said Sandra Knight, whose backyard is separated from Rooney’s by only a fence. “You’d think I would have heard a kid playing or something.”

“There was no drug dealing as far as we could tell, no cars coming in and out,” added another neighbor, who did not want to be identified. “There was no smell or anything.”

Methamphetamine use has been a scourge in the Midwest in recent years. It is cheap, relatively easy – but explosively dangerous – to make, and deadly for many users. It has, however, never been rampantly popular in Massachusetts, although there has been a major uptick in meth labs being busted in Maine and New Hambship in the last two years.

Abuse of prescription drugs and heroin have been much more consistently a problem in Southeastern Massachusetts.

It was a surprise then when police tracked a rise in methamphetamine use in the Hyannis area to the house on Chestnut Street in East Falmouth.

When they searched that house on June 12, police found chemicals and cooking materials, as well as 25 grams of suspected liquid meth, according to Falmouth District Court documents.

In the aftermath, some people are now worrying about hazardous chemicals in the ground and water, while others fear that meth has fully arrived in the region.

Methamphetamine is made from regular household products starting with cold and flu medication containing pseudoephedrine.

It can be produced in different ways, but the easiest, most portable and most popular method is the one-pot or shake ‘n’ bake method, said Shawn Murray, a Massachusetts State Police sergeant assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Clandestine Laboratory Team. Meth comes from a chemical reaction involving the cold medicine, as well as materials such as lithium removed from batteries, camping fuel and lye, said William York, owner of BioSpecialists LLC, a company specializing in meth lab and trauma scene cleanups with offices from Maine to West Yarmouth.

The dried powdery or crystallized end-product can be smoked, swallowed or injected. Its effect on the body is similar to speed but lasts much longer and costs less than cocaine, Murray said.

On Cape Cod, meth has been an ongoing issue with the gay male population in Provincetown.

But it hasn’t caught on with heterosexual users until recently, said Max Sandusky, prevention and education director for the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.

“We have definitely been aware of increased use of meth on the Mid- and Upper Cape, particularly in the heterosexual substance-using community,” Sandusky said. “The fact that the police seem to have discovered a significant lab operation is disturbing. The fact that the lab was here indicates the existence of a market for the drug.”

The alleged Falmouth lab was the typical “one-pot” type that doesn’t involve a full-on scientific laboratory. You just need a bottle and a few household ingredients, York said.

So-called meth labs have been found in cars and hotel rooms, he said. This method can be done in a bathroom, York added.

The cookers then discard the bottles and other materials in yards and along roads and sidewalks so the items are not found in their trash, he said.

Both the production and finished product are toxic to the body and the environment. The drug is also highly addictive.

The amount of evidence collected suggested the term one-pot may be misleading in this case, Balcom said.

“They were using more than one shake bottle at a time,” he said. “They had a lot of different products.”

The house on Chestnut Street has been condemned.

Depending on the amount of residue that has seeped into the home from cooking or smoking meth — as well as any chemicals dumped into the ground — the cleanup could cost thousands of dollars, York said.

York said he is currently cleaning up a former meth lab in North Conway, New Hampshire, that is costing the landlord between $8,000 and $10,000.

It’s not just the property owners who take a hit. Taxpayers will end up funding the police response and disposal of the hazardous materials, which often exceeds $10,000 per case, York said.

Meth use has reached epidemic levels in the Midwest, and it’s definitely increasing in New England. In the last two months, police have found more meth labs in Maine than they did in all of 2013, York said.